Adolescent offender facilities

* § 77. Adolescent offender facilities. 1. (a) The state shall
establish one or more facilities with enhanced security features and
specially trained staff to serve the adolescent offenders sentenced to a
determinate or indeterminate sentence for committing offenses on or
after their sixteenth birthday who are determined to need an enhanced
level of secure care which shall be managed by the department with the
office of children and family services assistance, and services or
programs.

(b) A council comprised of the commissioner, and the office of
children and family services, the commissioner of the state commission
of correction, and the commissioner of the division of criminal justice
services shall be established to assess the operation of the facility.
The governor shall designate the chair of the council. The council shall
have the power to perform all acts necessary to carry out its duties
including making unannounced visits and inspections of the facility at
any time. Notwithstanding any other provision of state law to the
contrary, the council may request and the department shall submit to the
council, to the extent permitted by federal law, all information in the
form and manner and at such times as the council may require that is
appropriate to the purposes and operation of the council. The council
shall be subject to the same laws as apply to the department regarding
the protection and confidentiality of the information made available to
the council and shall prevent access thereto by, or the distribution
thereof to, persons not authorized by law.

(c) Appropriate staff working in such facilities shall receive
specialized training to address working with the types of youth placed
in the facility, which shall include but not be limited to, training on
tactical responses and de-escalation techniques. All staff of the
facility shall be subject to random drug tests.

2. The office of children and family services shall assign an
assistant commissioner to assist the department, on a permanent basis,
with programs or services provided within such facilities.

3. The department, the state commission of correction and the office
of children and family services shall jointly establish a placement
classification protocol to be used to determine the appropriate level of
care for each adolescent offender in such facility. The protocol shall
include, but not necessarily be limited to, consideration of the nature
of the youth's offense and the youth's history and service needs.

4. Any new facilities developed by the department in consultation with
the office of children and family services to serve the youth committed
as adolescent offenders as a result of raising the age of juvenile
jurisdiction shall, to the extent practicable, consist of smaller, more
home-like facilities located near the youths' homes and families that
provide gender-responsive programming, services and treatment in small,
closely supervised groups that offer extensive and on-going individual
attention and encourage supportive peer relationships.

5. Adolescent offenders committed or transferred to the facility, as
defined in this section for committing a crime on or after their
sixteenth birthday who still have time left on their sentences of
imprisonment shall be transferred to a non-adolescent offender facility
in the department for confinement pursuant to this chapter after
completing two years in an adolescent offender facility unless they are
within four months of completing the imprisonment portion of their
sentence and the department determines, in its discretion, on a
case-by-case basis that the youth should be permitted to remain in such
facility for the additional short period of time necessary to enable
them to complete their sentence. In making such a determination, the
factors the department may consider include, but are not limited to, the
age of the youth, the amount of time remaining on the youth's sentence
of imprisonment, the level of the youth's participation in the program,
the youth's educational and vocational progress, the opportunities
available to the youth through the department, and the length of any
applicable post-release supervision sentence. Nothing in this
subdivision shall authorize a youth to remain in such facility beyond
his or her twenty-third birthday.

* NB Repealed October 1, 2020